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10 things that you need to know about the Mega Moolah slot

The Mega Moolah slot game has become something of a cult among slot players, due to the fact that it keeps on paying out massive multi-millionaire jackpot prizes year in, year out!

However, if you are a novice to the game, or just want to discover a little more about it, then why not take a look at our ten things you need to know about the Millionaire-Maker slot?

By the end of the article, we'll hope that you not only have a better understanding of the game and how it works, but also just why the Mega Moolah slot is quickly becoming the most popular online slot game of all-time!

When was Mega Moolah first released and who was the first winner?

Microgaming first released the Mega Moolah slot way back in 2006 with the promise that it would be a slot that would always offer a top prize of over a million in your local currency as the top prize. The game was well received by players and it was in 2007 whern the first big jackpot prize was won.

The lucky player from South Africa landed a R4,308,741.01 win. Several months later in 2008 a Finnish player Klaus E walked away with a US$5.5 million prize. He was the first player to go public.

The mobile version of Mega Moolah was launched in 2012 and playing the game via mobile devices has become the favourite among players.

What is the Mega Moolah slot like?

The Mega Moolah slot is based on an African safari theme with a number of cartoon animals on the reels alongside the usual playing card lows. It has a total of 5 reels, each with three symbols and there are a total of 25 non-selectable lines in play.

What makes Mega Moolah so attractive is that you don't need to wager the maximum bet in order to qualify for the progressive jackpot prize. All spins on the game qualify for the prize (from just 0.25) but the more you bet the more chance you have each spin of triggering the key bonus feature which offers you a shot at the jackpot.

That feature is the Jackpot Bonus Wheel and it can trigger at random on any spin, winning or not, in the game. When it does you spin the wheel which contains segments which represent one of the four Mega Moolah progressive jackpot prizes available, which in order of size are Mini, Minor, Major and Mega. It is this final Mega jackpot that offers a life-changing, million-plus win.

Don't forget though that in the Mega Moolah slot itself you can also win some sizeable prizes including a 75,000-coin jackpot in the base game and that increases up to 225,000 coins when you hit Free Spins.

Are there other versions of the Mega Moolah slot?

Over the years there have been a number of other slots that have tied in to the Mega Moolah progressive jackpot fund at times. That included two film-tie in slots, Lord of the Rings and The Dark Knight, both of which have now been unavailable to play.

Occasionally, you may find another slot that pays into the Mega Moolah progressive fund, this tends to the Egyptian-themed Mega Moolah Isis, or the beach-loving Mega Moolah Summertime or for motor enthusiasts, Mega Moolah 5-reel drive. However, finding these slots nowadays is not easy and it is much easier to simply play the original Mega Moolah slot.

How can the progressive jackpot pay out in multiple currencies?

Perhaps one of the most confusing aspects of the Mega Moolah slot for players new to the game is how can a slot which accepts players using Canadian Dollars, the Euro, Norwegian Krone and the British Pound, pay out a single jackpot prize in all these currencies.

The answer to this is very simple once you understand that the base currency for the Mega Moolah slot is the British Pound and that the slot is always seeded with at least £1 million.

Now if a player in Britain wins the jackpot prize, then they win the full amount shown. The new jackpot is seeded with the minimum £1 million and players can now start spinning to try and win the next progressive jackpot prize.

If a player from another part of the world triggers the jackpot win however, then they are paid out in their local currency. So for Canadian players, that is Canadian dollars. In these cases, the amount of British pounds it takes to be converted to award the progressive jackpot prize in Canadian dollars to a player are removed from the jackpot fund.

Now as you may be aware, the exchange rates for these currencies can fluctuate and this means that a Canadian player winning CA$10,000,000, would win the equivalent of £5,512,200. This means that if there was a $10,000,000 jackpot won by a Canadian player, there would still be £4,487,800 in the jackpot prize fund after they have been paid.

This is why when a player outside of the UK wins the jackpot prize, it does not always reset back to 1,000,000, but can often be considerably more than that.

I want to join a casino and play Mega Moolah, what is the best way to do that?

Although most online casinos offer you a Welcome Bonus to sign up, many of the rewards and loyalty program casinos will offer you a fantastic bonus deal. Some also offer you an opportunity to sign up for a small fee (as low as £1 or $1 in some cases) and in return they will give you a stated number of free, real money spins on the Mega Moolah slot as a welcome bonus!

The biggest ever cash win on the Mega Moolah slot occurred back in October 2015 when a UK-based player from Crewe landed not just a game record, but a Guinness World Record jackpot win of over £13.2 million. That win was an improvement over the previous record held by a different progressive slot game.

I keep reading that a slot is "about to pay out" is this correct for Mega Moolah?

Lots of websites like to keep players expectations high by keeping record of the average size of pay out and the average length of time between pay outs on slot games such as Mega Moolah. When a slot goes beyond either the length of time between wins, or the size of the prize fund increases beyond a typical win, then they often state that a slot is "ready to pay" soon.

While in terms of statistics, it may look that way, what you have to remember is that every spin on the Mega Moolah slot has the same chance as any other of winning. It doesn't matter if the jackpot is large or small, or was triggered 1 second, 1 day, 1 year or 1 decade ago. The game still plays the same on every spin, meaning every spin has the same chance to win.

What is certainly true is that as the Mega Moolah progressive jackpot climbs, more players tend to play the game and that means more spins are played on the game and that means because more spins are played, a jackpot trigger is more likely to happen.

The same is true when companies state a slot is "cold". Just because the game has not reached the standard size for a pay out, or saw a jackpot win recently, does not mean it will not pay out again for a while. The Mega Moolah jackpot has been won within the space of five days back in June 2014 and it was also won twice in a short time back in November 2017 too.

Why was 2017 such a record breaking year for Mega Moolah?

Prior to 2017, the most times in a single calendar year that the Mega Moolah jackpot had been won was six. This occurred back in 2013 when the jackpot was won in February, May, September, October, November and December of that year.

However, in 2017, a new record was set with the jackpot being triggered an incredible 12 times in a single calendar year, it was triggered at least once in every month in 2017 apart from in February (where it did not land a winner) and in November where there were two winners in the month, just a few days apart from each other. Over the course of the year, Mega Moolah paid out more than 56 million in jackpot prizes alone, which was another record.

The good news for punters is that 2018 is also on the way towards being another record year as for the first time ever, we have had winners in the first three months of the year consecutively.

Why are so many more jackpots being won nowadays compared to a few years ago?

This is a good question and the answer is very simple. There are more jackpots being won as there are far more people now playing the Mega Moolah slot than there were previously.

For example, let's say that a slot pays out its progressive jackpot on average ever 1 million spins and let's say that on average 100 people a day play the slot, playing around 1000 spins a day. On average, this means that this slot would pay out roughly once every 1000 days (just under 3 years) played at those rates.

Now let's say that the same slot grows in popularity and now there are 10,000 people playing it a day for 100,000 spins a day on average. This means that now, the slot would pay out once every 10 days or so, a considerably shorter period of time between wins.

So, it is simply down to how popular the Mega Moolah slot is with so many players all around the world that has led to this sharp increase in jackpot winners over the last couple of years.

Do Microgaming offer any progressives similar to Mega Moolah?

While there are no progressives that have a guaranteed million-plus jackpot prize from Microgaming other than Mega Moolah, there are some that can see their jackpots climb to a million or more. Major Millions is one such slot and has paid out a top prize of over £1.9m. The other game to have seen its progressive rise to over £1m is King Cashalot, which has paid out a biggest ever win of over £1.5m.